VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – The Virginia Beach School Board held a meeting Tuesday night to discuss when the school year should start.

Virginia Beach students started their 2023-2024 school year before Labor Day after a district wide survey concerning when the school year should start.

According to the school board, all districts are required to have at least 180 instructional days for students throughout the year, and many people have said they want a calendar that makes sense for both students and teachers.

One proposal suggested from the survey would give teachers over a week of work days before students come back to the classroom, receiving some backlash from teachers in the district.

“What are we supposed to do all that time before we’ve met our students, before we’ve had time to do pre-assessments, data collections and build those relationships and get to know our students,” Virginia Beach High School teacher Heather Sipe said. “How are we planning for later in the year and the lack of well-paced staff days just doesn’t make sense.”

Melinda Rogers, a school board candidate, stressed the importance of ensuring teachers are given the tools they need to thrive in the district.

“We need to be able to listen to what our educators need, we need to be able to give them a calendar that they are happy with because we need to invite our educators to stay as long as possible.”

To view the proposed calendar options for the Virginia Beach 2024-2025 school year, click here.